Once again, I’m way behind on the BLOG. At time of writing, I’m in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and since leaving Chiang Mai have traveled across northern Thailand, down the Mekong River into Laos, and through Vietnam from Hanoi down to HCMC. But hey, there are folks reading this and I want it for my ‘look back’ one day, so I’m determined to keep it going.
I wanted to visit Chiang Mai because it was on a top 10 list of places to retire – climate, low-cost of living, culture, people, medical system etc. While I really enjoyed my stay here, the city’s not on the water. It sits astride the Ping River, but that’s not nearly ‘wet’ enough for me. However, Chiang Mai supplies just about everything you could want. It’s modern and ancient at the same time, the people are wonderful, it’s clean, and it’s true about the medical system. I paid a visit to a doctor for the common ‘tourist tummy’. Including drugs dispensed in his office, the cost was less than $30. I met a guy from Quebec who had flown to Thailand for a dental procedure that was costing him thousands less than the price back home.
Chiang Mai, meaning new city, was founded in 1296 as the capital of the ancient Lanna kingdom. The old city, where I spent most of my time, sits inside a moat and a wall. The moat is there today but most of the wall is gone, except for a few sections still standing after its restoration decades ago. You cross the moat and enter the old city through any of half a dozen gates. Once inside, the best way to explore is on foot and I think the real charm of the place lies down its many soi (alleys). The old city is about 2 kilometres square. There’s lots to find in that space. You could spend a life time exploring the history and culture of the region. On the down side, Chiang Mai is crawling with GD tourists – I don’t count myself among those – I’m a wanderer, not a tourist, and a snob about it! As usual, look out for motorbikes, especially those driven by young tourists (sorry young readers, if any).
I arrived in Chiang Mai from Siem Reap Cambodia, just in time for Christmas, and stayed until mid February. It turned out to be an opportunity to rest for a time after the traveling I’d done in the last year – the voyage around Australia, then visits to Melbourne, Auckland, Phnom Penh, Lazy Beach, Sihanoukville, Siem Reap ….
I can’t remember what I did for Christmas. It couldn’t have been too memorable, and it definitely did not involve turkey or pumpkin pie – fried rice on the menu somewhere. This is a lousy phone-photo, but meet the two amigos. They played at the coolest bar/restaurant just down the road from my charming little Bussaba Bed Hotel, on the Ping River. They gave my Christmas a boost.
Remember, click on the photos to enlarge – you’ll get a better look at the people and places. These guys played song after song, no vocals, and without speaking a word to each other. Their interpretation of Silent Night was just magic!
New Years eve party people 2014, enjoying fireworks and floating lanterns in the night sky by Tha Phae Gate.
I think everyone that travels the region enjoys the signs they come across. Here’s a few I stumbled over.
I had a couple of one-on-one monk chats. These guys are the gentlest, most thoughtful (as in thinking) people you could come across. It seems no question can ruffle their feathers. They give up everything, and I mean everything, in pursuit of higher learning, self betterment and making the world a better place.
So who’s right, the Buddhist monk who surrenders all or the guy who thinks “he who finishes with the most toys wins”? Beats me. Here’s one of the monks I chatted with – lost his name. I’ve got the right haircut to join them, but need to do a lot of work on cleaning up my mind (see sign above).
Buddhas everywhere!
I didn’t book my hotel ahead over Christmas and had to pack up and move out of Bussaba Bed. The “inn was full” all over town and I thought I was going to have to hit the road. I found a place at the last-minute that had shared bathrooms and no TV, but it was clean and my room was large with a balcony and a view over the swimming pool. Best of all the room was about $15 a night! After a few days I got tired of the shared bathroom routine and wanted a TV – I don’t watch a lot of TV, but it’s company of a sort and keeps me in touch with the western world.
After Christmas, I found a place just up the soi (alley) with its own toilet and TV and only a few dollars more. So, one hot, sunny morning I packed my gear and dragged it up the soi, checked in, unpacked and turned the TV on to find it only had Thai channels, no English! WTF. The location was good, so I stayed for several days and during that time no one walked in to use my toilet or shower.
Enough words, time for a few Chiang Mai sights.
This is Rachadamoen Road. Closed to traffic every Sunday night, it becomes a “walking street”. At 6PM everyone stops in their tracks while the Thai national anthem is played over loud speakers (all over the city, I think).
Hungry? No thanks, I didn’t try them. Chiang Mai is a Thai food lovers paradise – this photo’s an aberration.
Chiang Mai must be the world massage capital. The competition drives the price down to rock bottom – ~$5 an hour – in clean safe surroundings with a trained, skilled masseuse.
How can you resist her smile? For a few dollars, she’ll give you one of her cages and you can set the tiny birds inside free. Her grand-kids are just around the corner catching them. It’s supposed to bring good luck. Her huge smile comes from ownership of the mansion just around the corner.
The café at the lower left serves the best coffee, the best banana muffins and the best carrot cake, and has a sign out front inviting folks to come in to play their piano – accomplished people do. It’s also a great spot to Skype Nancy in Wales.
Women and over-weight folks lumped together at the bottom of the totem pole in an ancient folk tale. Things haven’t changed much – what do you think?
This restaurant on the Ping River was a feast for the eyes everywhere I looked. This is the check-out counter. I wish now I had gone back and tried to capture the joint with some better photos.
Computerized ‘cash registers’ are rare in the old city. This woman tracks sales from her vantage point at the bar. All sales are recorded on those slips of paper in the pigeon holes at her finger tips – entertainment for me at the bar with my Singha.
Buddhist temples dot Thailand everywhere. Apparently, there are more than 200 in and around Chiang Mai alone. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
Not sure what Ganesha below is doing in Wat Si Supan, a Buddhist temple, but this is one of the best specimens I’ve seen.
The steps leading to Wat Phrathat at Doi Suthep. Tourists flock here in their thousands, leaving lots of cash behind.
Now I am confused. I didn’t notice, but some of these Buddhas are either female or very large breasted males? It’s next to impossible for a woman to become a Buddhist monk. Here’s a quote about women from the little blue book on Buddhism that’s handed out by the monk chat monks, “… women are the stain of chastity … the most important rule for monks … is to keep celibate … since womanhood is the natural opponent of celibacy, so a woman is the stain for chastity.” OK. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Donations from visitors.
Click on the face of the little girl having her hair ‘fixed’.
Here’s the famous “white temple”, a two and a half hour bus ride north of Chiang Mai, at the city of Chiang Rai. I stopped here on my way north to Chiang Khong to board the boat in the Mekong River.
“What’s it all about, Alfie?”
You can buy a small metal disk with your name and the date of your visit engraved on the disk to hang on a ‘tree’ – notice how new disk layers are added. They told me one tree held 80,000 disks, but looked like more to me. There are four trees – $320,000, a lot of money in Thailand.
Enough of temples, on to Chiang Khong, the Mekong River and Laos.
Thanks to friends Frank, Nunat, Nai and Aom!!!!
durhamgj east 